Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
hi im new here, need some advice please, i have had my daughter living with me for almost 7 years now an she has had next to no contact with her mother through no fault of my own. now her mother is saying she is gioing to take her from school! i want to to gain full custody but not sure how? an im worried i may loose because im not the mother! what are my options? thank you.
hi Matthew and welcome on here.
is there any residence order in place at the moment?
whether there is or not, in my opinion, there isn't a court in the land that is going to remove your son from a home where he's been settled for the last 7 years and put him with a woman who he barely knows, so I would say that if there isn't a residence order, then that's what you should be goin for, and I would say that you should also be applying for a contact order with quite restrictive conditions, ie fully supervised contact for quite a while, and then a slow easing of restrictions.
however, as I have said, this is not a professional opinion, so I will ask the CCLC to pop on and give an opinion.
no there is no residency in place. where do i apply for one of those? and thank you veery much.
Dear Matthew,
Thank you for your query.
Firstly in regards to residence, if you hold Parental Responsibility (PR) for your daughter and there are no court orders in place, this means that legally your daughter does not belong to either parent, and therefore can reside with either yourself or the mother. To establish whether you have PR, if your daughter was born before the 1st December 2003 you must have been married to the mother or have obtained PR through a court order, or if she was born after the 1st December 2003 then you must either be on her birth certificate or to have obtained PR through a court order.
PR means that you have the same legal rights and responsibilities as the mother, therefore neither yourself nor the mother can do anything that may affect your daughter’s life without either’s consent, such as changing her surname or taking her out of the UK.
In regards to contact with the mother, as you are the resident parent you can legally refuse any contact that you do not feel is suitable but you must justify your refusal and it cannot be for a trivial reason as there is a presumption under the law that contact is the right of the child and not the right of the parent. Additionally, in regards to a Contact Order for the mother, you cannot apply for this, only the mother can as there is a presumption under the law that you cannot force a parent to have contact when they don’t wish to, therefore the resident parent cannot apply for an order on the other parties behalf.
If you have concerns that the mother may attempt to take your daughter from school you may wish to apply for a Residence Order through the court. A Residence Order is a legally binding order that stays in place until your daughter will reach 16 and will set out who she is to live with through that time. An Order can only be applied for if there is a dispute over residence as due to the No Order Principle in law the courts are reluctant to grant an order when it is not absolutely necessary.
To apply for a Residence Order then you must do this through a C100 form. You can obtain this form either through your local court, or online via the Justice website. The website address is www.justice.gov.uk. Once you obtain this form you must complete the form and lodge it at the court closest to where your child lives. There is an application cost of £200 to apply for this order.
If you are eligible for legal aid then we would advise that you obtain an EX160A form. This is a fee exemption form and will waive the £200 cost for the application or it will reduce the cost. Additionally, if you wish to represent yourself then we would advise that you also obtain a CB1 and a CB3 leaflet. These leaflets are guidance on how to represent yourself during the court process and can be obtained either through your local court or through the Justice website.
Once you lodge the form and it is processed through the court, you should obtain a court date within 4 to 6 weeks, but this is dependant on the court’s availability and the judge. Once you are granted a hearing the court will then make a decision based on what’s in the best interests of your daughter. This is based on the Child Welfare Checklist and is contained within s1(3) of the Children Act 1989. We cannot advise on what the court may or may not grant; it is at the court’s discretion to decide what’s in the best interests of your daughter.
Additionally, in regards to the school, if you have concerns then we would advise that you liaise with the school and express your concerns. As the mother has PR then technically she could take your daughter from the school but if this were to happen then you should contact the Police and Social Services immediately.
If you have any further questions please contact us again via our webchat facility. The link to our webchat is http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/index.php?page=web_chat.
Yours sincerely,
Coram Children’s Legal Centre
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.